Rotary engine.



I W. s. MI NOR.

, ROTARY ENGINE.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 9, 1908. I 900,410. Patented Oct. 6, 1908.

a sums-sum 1.

W. S. MINOR.

ROTARY ENGINE.

APPLICATION IILED'APR. 9, 1908.

900,410. Patented 0015.6,1908.

- 3 sums-dun 2.

i A a r- H1 I I JM R,

W. S; MINOR.

ROTARY ENGINE. urmoumn IILEI) APB. 9, 190a.

Patented Oct. 6, 1908.

s sums-sum s.

jm w

UNITED STATES "I gENT OFFICE...

WALTER S. MINOR, OF CUNNINGHAM, TENNESSEE.

Berni: 121mm;

To all whom it mag concern.-

Be it known that' I, WALTER S; MINOR, a

citizen of the. United States, residing at Cunningham, in the county ofMontgomery and State of Tennessee, have invented certain new and useful-Improvements in R- tary Engines, ofywhich the following is aspecificatiop, reference being bad to the accompanying drawings, o Myinvent on relates to improvements in rotary engines for steam or otherfluid under pressure, and it consists of the novel features ofconstruction and the combination and arrangzment of parts hereinafterfully descri d and claimed.

The object of the invention is to provide an engine of this characterwhich will be sim le and practical in construction, strongi an durablein use, andhighly cflicient in operation. y A further'obfiect of theinvention is to provide improved packing devices for the piston bladesand other parts of an engine of this character. 1

The above and other objects of the in-vention, as will hereinafter morefully appear, are attained in its preferred (embodiment illustrated inthe accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a vertical transverse orcross section through my improved rotary'engine; Fig. 2 is a lon'tudinal section taken on. the. I lanegindica by the line 22 in. Fig. 1;

ig. is ,a horizontal section taken on the lane indicated bythe line 33in Fig. 1; ig. 4 is a side elevation ofthe inner face of one of the epdplates or heads of the cylinder; Fig. 5 is an elevation of the innerside or face of one of the end lates of the piston; Fig. dis a detailview 0 .one of the packing rings for the end of the piston; Fig. 7 is adetail view of one of the blades of the pieton; Fig. 8 is a detailperspective view of the jointed angular packin strips for oils of thepiston lades; and ig. 9 1s adetail section through the packing ring.

' My improved rotary steam engine comv prises a casing or cylinder 1formed with a suitable baseand open ends adapted to be closed by similarend plates or heads 2 which may be suitably secured. I prefer- -ably,however, e the innerface of each of the heads ad acent to their outeredges so as to receive the ends of the cylinder and secure them to thelatter by boltsv or similar s ecification, Letters Patent. i am maAprim, 1908. Serial No. 426,115;

Patented Oct. o, 1.608.-

removable fastenin s 3, as shown more clearly in Fig; 2; ormcd withinthe bore of the cylinder and extendiiig longitudinally thereof at anysuitable point, but preferably at its top, as shown in-Fig. 1, is'a ribor projection 4 which serves as an abutment and which is provided withone or more packing strips-5 to engage the periphery of :ucylindricalrotary piston 6 w ichv is included concentrically on a longitudinalshaftl'l, the 1-.

ends of which project through" and are mounted for rotation in beariirgs forn'ie'd at the centers of the heads 2 and )I'OVldtlWltll. suitablestull'ing boxes or glan s 8 Steam inlet and exhaust passages 9, 10,respectively, are provided in the cylinder on opposite sides of theabutment 4;;1nd cornmunicate with the annular steam passage or space 11formed between the piston ani'l, cylinder and ada )ted to be separatedat intervals to break t e communication between the inlet and exhaustpassages, by piston blades or valves 12. The portion of the bore oftlia' cylinder 1 adjacent-'to the exhaust port or passage 10 is sli htlyenlarged by cutting away a portion 0 the inner wall of the cylinder, asshown at 13, thereby facilitating the outlet of steam, as )resentl yexplained. .The piston 6 is pre erably in tho-form of a solidcylindrical body bored conce 'itrically to receive the shaft 7 which iskeyed or otherwise secured therein and formed n its periphery a'tdiametrically opposite points are longitudinal grooves or channels lttoreceive the piston blades 12. The latter are in the form of flat,rectangular plates of such size as to slide freely in the grooves orrecesses-14 and to drop entirely within the same to permit them to passunder the cylin dcr abutment 4. Said recesses 14 are shaped as clearlyshown in Fig. 3 and in their bottoms are smaller recesses 14 to receiveextensions 12 formed at the ends of the rear edge of the valve blades orplates 12. \Vhile said blades may be projected and'rctracted by airysuitable means 1 preferably employ the one illustrated which consists inprovi ing at the ends of said blades outwardly rojecting ins orextensions 15 adaptw travel through grooves or chmmels 16 formed in theinner faces of the cylindcr heads 2. As illustrated in Fig-u 4, 'each ofthe ooves 16 has a little more than half of it disposed concentricallywith res 'icctto' 'the piston so that when the pins pass through its nov

j this portion of the rooves the bladeswill he held projected antagainst the inner Wall or bore of thecylinder -1; and the remainingportion 17 of each of said grooves is eccen- --trical-l'y disposed toprovide acam portion \vliichserves to move the pins 15' inwardly andoutwardly witl' respect to the center of as piston and therebyretractthe blades .12

' as they approach the abutment 1: and pass under it and then projectsaid. plates as they leave it. The blades 12 are retained in the groovesin the piston by-twoend plates-1'8 which are suitably secured and formedwith oppositely disposed radially, extending slots pins formed iutegralwith the blades to receive the 15, which latter are if-5 atp'oint;adjacent to their inner corners.

'- lt will he noted that the extensions 12 on the blades 12 will coverthe slots 18 and prems the passage of steam through said slots. Thepacking. strips for the abutment 4 are in the form of metal platesarranged for radial sl iding movement f' groo ves 20 formed in the 'ahutments, said plates being grooves by transverse pins 21 said abutmentand through or openings 22 formed in said '.lhe.latter are projected andheld firmly against the periphery of the piston by leaf springs 23which} are V-shaped and arranged as. clearly shown in Fig. 2.

For the purpose of of steam around the b 35 outer portions of each or'channelsg24i to receive angular packing strips 25. Said groove 24. isformed longitudlnally in the outer ed e and also in the outer porti nsof the em and each of the right angular packing strips 25 is adapted tofit in-one-end of the groove 24 and to slide both radially and laterallywithrespect to' the piston so that the long portion 'or-arm 26 of eachof the strips will enga ethe inner Wallofthe cylinder 1 and retained inthe passed through elongated slots ades '12'I provide t is thesortportion or arm 27 of the same will,

engage one of the end plates 2. of the cylinder. The long arms 26 of thetwo packing strips on. each valve have their inner ends 59 recessed to--overlap .and

by a transverse I in .28 passed through and fixed in one of said endsTand adapted to ,proin a slot-29 inthe'other of' own-more clearly 'in-Fig. 8." The strips 25 are retained in the groove 24 ject'into and slidesaid ends, -assh .55 I

by transverse blade and'into ings 31 in said stri ated outwardly byarranged in the grooves 26, 27 of said strips, as cl or the of steamaround the ends o e iston' I preterably fem i i-the inner faces 6enlarged or elongate o'pen-.

s. Thelatter are beneath the arms 1y illustrated in 'rically oppositepoints.

packing strips.-

reventing the'leaka e of them with groovesv s of the blade 12 areloosely united.

pins 30 passed throtagh the actushaped leaf springs 32,

purpose of preventingl the escape plates 18 annular grooves to receivespin packing rings 34. Two of said rings are preferablyprovided at eachend of the piston and they are split diagonally at. one point sothat-their ends overlap; and the two rin at each end of the piston arearranged so that their split portions are disposed at diamet- Said ringsare retained in position but at the same time per mitted to have radialmovement, by means of inwardly projecting pins 35'fo1ined upon them andextending into recesses 36 f med in the end plates 18 and adapted 'toreceive coil springs??? which latter surround. said pins and sci-vetoproject the rings and press them against the outer wall of circulardepressions 37 formed in the inner faces of the cylinder heads 2, asclearly shown in the drawings. I

38 denotes oil passages formed in the cylinder heads and 39 denotes awaste passage for the outlet of oil and water of condensation from eachof the recessesor depressions 37. If desired, suitable oil cups may beprovided at the outer ends of the passages 38,

The operation is as follows. Assuming the parts to be in the posit-ionshown in Fig. l and steam to be admitted into the inlet. 9, it will beseen that both the pressure and expansion of the steam thus admittedwill be against the blade 12 on the right hand side It will thus be seenthat one of the blades is always projeeted'and serves to divide theannular steam space pactof the steann As the blades are re- .tracted thesteam escapes around them and through the enlarged portion 13 of thesteam space and from thence through the exhaust lO. The invention isentirely automatic in its operation-arid will be steady d powerful andfree iron; vibration.- Furthermore, itiis exceedin 1y simpleinconstruction and composedv o durable. E

WhileI have shown'and describedin de,

tail the preferredembodiment of my inven ,tion I 'wish it understoodthatI do not wish few parts which are strong and Hand receive the imtobe limited to the preciseconstruction set forth and that various chanproportion and sorted to without departingfrom. the s irit orsacrificing any of the advan'ta invention. also wish it distinc stoodthat-I may substitute other. forms packing devices for the ones hereinset forth, and rovide he valve guide pins with ball -'-the end-i or r0er bearings.

ge s in the form,.' minor details .may. .be re-' [0 y under" abutmentand inlet and in et and exhaust Having thus described my invention whatI claim is:

away portion, said abutment being .fo I ed with a longitudinal slot, asprin a said sl cylin er packing-strap arranged in eads covering theopen ends of the cylinder and formed in their inner faces with circulardepressions, the latter being formed in their bottoms with grooveshaving concentric and cam or eccentric portions, a shaft arrangedconcentrically in the cylinder and having its ends journaled in saidheads, a cylindrical piston fixed. concentrically on said shaft andformed at opposite points in its periphery with' radial grooves, endplates removably secured to the ends of the piston and arranged toproject into the circular depressions in the cylinder heads, said endplates being formed with radial slots to aline with the ends of thegrooves in the piston and having their inner edges formed with annulargrooves, annular spring pressed packing strips arranged in the lastmentioned annular grooves at the ends of the piston and adapted toengage the side walls of the circular depressions in the cylinder heads,piston blades arranged for radial sliding movement in the grooves in thepiston and formed at their ends with pins to project through the slotsin said end plates an into the'grooves in the bottoms of the circulardepressions in the cylinder heads, the outer ends of said blades'beingformed with grooves, and angular spring presset packing stri s arrangedin the grooves in the piston b ades to bear against the inner wall ofthemylinder and the adjacent portions of the inner faces of the cylinderheads, substantially as shown and described.

2. In a rotary engine, the combination of a cylinder haviiu open ends, alongitudinal and exhaust ports on'opposite sides of the'abutment,cylinder heads closing the open ends of the cylinder and being formedwith concentrically arranged circular depressions, the latter having intheir bottoms grooves provided with concentric and eccentric or cam ptions, a concentric shaft journaled in the cylinder heads, a concentricpiston fixed on said shaft and formed in its periphery with the radialgrooves 14 and with the recesses 14' at the ends of the bottom portionsof the recesses 14, entl plates secured upon the ends of the piston and.formed with the radial slotsl8 the grooves 14 in the piston,

to register with slidably mounted piston blades arran ed in the groovesof the piston and forme with extensions 12 to cover the slots in saidend platesand to reject into said recesses 14 whenthe bla es are inretracted position, and pins carried by the ends of the blades andprojecting through plates of the iston and into the roovesjn the bottomso the circular depressions in the.

cylinder heads.

3. In a rotary engine, the combination of a cylinder having open ends,cylinder heads upon the same and formed with concentric circulardepressions, a concentric rotary piston, concentric end plates upon thelatter and formed in their inner edges with the annular rooves havingthe sockets 36 arranged at intervals in their bottoms. and the splitpacking rings 34 arranged in the grooves 33 between the end plates ofthe piston and the ends of the. latter and formed with the inwardlyprojecting radial pins to enter the sockets 36, and the coil springs 37arranged upon the pins 35 for expanding the rings and holding them incontact with the side walls of the circular depressions in the cylinderheads.

-i. In a rotary engine, the combination of a cylinder, a piston thereinformed with radial recesses, piston blades in said recesses and formedin their outer edges and the adjacent portions of their ends with thegrooves 2-1, said blades being also formedwith the transverse openings30- intersecting said grooves, the right angular packing strips 25arranged in the grooves 2- and having short arms to project beyond theends of the blades and 1011 r arms to project beyond the outer longituinal edges of the blades, said long arms being formed with the elongatedopenings or slots 31 to re ister with the openings 30 in the blades, sailong arms of'the packing strips having their ends recessed and overlaping, the recessed end of one being form, with the slot- 29 and thereccssedend of the other carrying the'pin 38 to enter the slot 29,transverse pins passed through the openings 30 and 31 in the blades andmelting stri s and springs arranged in the ottoms of t e grooves 24 andadapted to bear against WALTER s. MINOR.

Witnesses: J. AtIIARNEY, Emma ()amin.

the slots in the end

